Three nations asked to bolster Iraq force: "The United States has asked Turkey, Pakistan and South Korea to send up to 40,000 troops total to Iraq as part of a global U.S. drive for help to secure the country still wracked by violence, officials from those nations told The Associated Press."

U.S. tanks patrol Iraqi city after ambush: "U.S. tanks and armored fighting vehicles rumbled through Saddam Hussein's hometown and its outskirts early Saturday in a show of force following a coordinated ambush against American forces that killed three soldiers and wounded two."

Saudi says his country against terrorism: "Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States insisted Friday his country stands firmly against terrorism, despite continued criticism from Capitol Hill that funds could still be moving through Saudi charities to organizations such as al-Qaida."

Isabel's outer bands lash N.C. coast: "The outer rings of a weakened but still potent Hurricane Isabel began lashing the North Carolina coast early Thursday with gusting winds, while already rain-soaked areas as far away as Pennsylvania prepared for possibly ruinous flooding."

Bush works toward U.N. Iraq compromise: "President Bush, working to find common ground with allies on a new U.N. Iraq resolution, sought to dispel controversy about recent administration statements on Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."

NYSE seeks successor after chairman quits: "Dick Grasso is gone, and his millions with him, leaving a new, almost certainly less extravagant and more public era to be ushered in by the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange."

Jobless claims at lowest level in 3 weeks: "After rising for three straight weeks, new claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in nearly a month, raising hopes that the pace of layoffs may be starting to slow down again."

Spanish police make more al-Qaida arrests: "Police have arrested several suspects on orders of a Spanish judge who is investigating al-Qaida links, the government said Thursday, a day after he issued the first known indictment against Osama bin Laden in the Sept. 11 attacks."

Gunman who held class hostage is killed: "A 26-year-old man with a history of mental problems held at least a dozen college students at gunpoint during a nine-hour standoff before a SWAT team stormed the school building and killed him."

Calif. seeks to hold recall on schedule: "The fate of the gubernatorial recall election was back in the hands of an appeals court as candidates ramped up their rhetoric in anticipation of a reversal that would reinstate the historic Oct. 7 vote."

Stocks expected to open higher: "U.S. stocks were expected to open higher Thursday as investors remained upbeat about the prospects for the economy. Futures were up early on the first day of trading after the resignation of New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso."

Arafat, Fatah meet to pick ministers: "Yasser Arafat and leaders of his Fatah movement met Thursday to choose ministers in the new Palestinian government, and the Palestinian leader reported progress in truce talks with Islamic militant groups."

Valuable Sumerian relic recovered in Iraq: "The Lady of Warka, one the two most precious relics looted from the Iraqi National Museum in the chaos that followed the April 9 fall of Baghdad, has been recovered by U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police, the head of Iraq's Antiquities Department said on Thursday."

GOP to Closely Examine $87B War Request: "Republicans say they will try to push President Bush's $87 billion war request rapidly through Congress, but not before lawmakers sensitive to record federal deficits give it a thorough look. (AP)"

German, French Leaders Hold Talks on Iraq: "The leaders of France and Germany met Thursday for talks on postwar Iraq and ways to boost Europe's economy, ahead of a weekend meeting with their British counterpart. (AP)"

Japan's PM in a Bind Over Troops, Funds for Iraq: "Japan will provide at least $1 billion inaid for the reconstruction of Iraq, media reports said onThursday, as the government struggles to balance promises madeto Washington with voters' misgivings about the Iraq war. (Reuters)"

Iraqi Governing Council Seeks U.N. Seat: "The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, its image buttressed by new support from the Arab League and OPEC, now plans to send its president to New York to claim Iraq's seat at the U.N. General Assembly, diplomats said. (AP)"

Treasury Chief: Saudis are strong allies: "U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow on Wednesday said Saudi Arabia is a strong partner in the fight against terror and that "significant progress" has been made in halting the cash flow to terrorists."

Saudi terror crackdown irks some Muslims: "A Saudi crackdown on cash donations to charities aimed at blocking the flow of money to terrorists has had one immediate effect: angering Muslim groups that help the poor, including one that expects contributions to drop by one-third."

U.S.: Iraq soldiers won't be in combat: "The new Iraqi army will not initially join U.S. troops in combat operations against holdouts from the deposed government of Saddam Hussein, a senior American adviser to the U.S. occupation authority said Wednesday."

British PM believes public support on Iraq will take time: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair believes it will take at least six more months for the public to acknowledge that the invasion of Iraq by the US and Britain in March was the right course, the Guardian newspaper reported. (AFP)"

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq - Six people claiming to be Americans and two who say they are British are in U.S. custody on suspicion of involvement in attacks on coalition forces, an American general said Tuesday. They would be the first Westerners reported held in the insurrection against the U.S.-led occupation. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who is in charge of coalition detention centers in Iraq, said they were considered security detainees, meaning they were suspected of involvement in guerrilla attacks. She did not identify them but said they were being interrogated by military intelligence in Baghdad, where they were being held.

Powell Finally Visits Crisis Hot Spots: "The subject matter at city council meeting was fairly routine - street crime, youth programs, education and how to get women more engaged in politics. But this was Baghdad and there, of all people, sat the American secretary of state - taking it all in. (AP)"

Rumsfeld Sees No Link Between Iraq, 9/11: "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday he had no reason to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a hand in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. (AP)"

Annan pushes ahead with efforts to achieve Security Council consensus: "Pushing his efforts to achieve consensus on the next steps in Iraq, Secretary-General Kofi Annan planned to meet today with the remaining members of the United Nations Security Council following his weekend talks with the Foreign Ministers of the 15-nation body's five veto-wielding powers in Geneva."

"Our Grief is Not a Cry for War": "At the time of the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Not in Our Name says more than ever: "our grief is not a cry for war". The two years since 9-11 have also been two years of building resistance to the U.S. government's course of war and repression, resistance that reached new heights worldwide. What is needed are not schemes to make U.S. occupation more palatable but an end to the occupation of Iraq and expanded resistance to the U.S. government's whole war on the world."

Palestinian envoy walks out of U.N. talks: "Any attempt by Israel to kill or expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would be an "illegal and insane act," the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said Monday before stalking out of the Security Council debate."

U.S. Holds to Hopes of Turkish Troops in Iraq: "The United States will keep trying toovercome the objections of Kurdish politicians to acceptingTurkish troops as part of a multinational force in Iraq,Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday. (Reuters)"

U.S. arrests suspected Saddam loyalists: "Dozens of U.S. troops raided homes near Tikrit's dangerous "RPG Alley" Monday, arresting five men suspected of helping to bankroll attacks against American troops in Saddam Hussein's hometown."

Key Israeli says killing Arafat an option: "Israel's vice prime minister said killing Yasser Arafat is an option for Israel, as Palestinians on Sunday took to the streets across the West Bank and Gaza Strip promising to protect their leader."

Powell visits mass grave of Iraqi victims: "Secretary of State Colin Powell visited a mass grave Monday to highlight perhaps the single biggest human-rights abuse of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime - the chemical weapons murder of some 5,000 people in March 1988."

Palestinians demand U.N. protect Arafat: "The Palestinians are urging the United Nations to demand that Israel ensures Yasser Arafat's safety and key Security Council members are pushing both parties to implement the peace plan known as the "road map.""

Cheney: U.S. may seek more aid for Iraq: "Vice President Dick Cheney hinted Sunday that the Bush administration would seek more money next year than the additional $87 billion already requested to pay mainly for postwar costs in Iraq."

Bush Insists Strategy for Iraq Is 'Clear': "Underscoring his belief and hope that Iraq will be a stable democracy one day, President Bush told Americans on Saturday that his administration has a clear strategy and is moving forward on its work to complete the transformation of Iraq. (AP)"

Faux Osama?: "Buzzflash says it's interesting that: one, Osama bin Laden always seems to resurface any time the Bush administration wants to do something unpopular; two, bin Laden seems to have undergone a little "nip and tuck" in his latest video. The editors don't assert that the Osama tapes are a hoax, but remind us that is nothing is impossible in "a war of appearances.""

Repeat after me: Saddam, 9/11, Al-Qaeda: "With the occupation of Iraq rapidly deteriorating, Dubya liberally sprinkled the word "terror" in his speech. L.A. Times, noting the obvious, says Bush's speech "represent(s) a new tack by the White House: a concerted effort to quiet second-guessing about the campaign, cast the effort as part of a broader anti- terrorism cause and remind the public of the outcome's stakes." There is, of course, no evidence that Al-Qaeda was ever connected to Saddam. James Steinberg of the Brookings Institution says, "(Iraq) wasn't the place you had to confront Al Qaeda. They weren't there, and this is not what that war was about." Unfortunately, as the article notes, many Americans continue to believe their lying liar of a president. For a very funny spoof of Bush's speech, check out San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll's column today."

WMD? What WMD?: "The search for Saddam's deadly arsenal is now merely a footnote in the war. In what amounts to a political "do-over", Bush has recasted the mission in Iraq into Ground Zero in the broader war on terror. Rumsfeld didn't even ask about the weapons in his recent Baghdad visit. They've changed their minds about why they went to war and their sticking to it -- at least until that reasoning also fails them."

U.S. approved exodus: ""The United States allowed members of Osama bin Laden?s family to jet out of the US in the immediate aftermath of September 11, even as American airspace was closed," writes the Edinburgh Evening News. The Bush administration allowed a plane to land in several cities to pick up passengers before heading home out of the country."

Meet our new best friend: the United Nations: "In just the latest flurry of overtures by the White House toward the UN, George Bush reportedly told the prime minister of Netherlands that he supports an increased international role in Iraq. This sudden change of heart is most likely a result of the reality check delivered by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO report, delivered in the form of a letter to Sen. Robert Byrd, says that given the present one-year rotation policy, the Pentagon would be forced to reduce the 180,000 soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait to between 38,000 and 64,000 in six months. To put it bluntly, the Pentagon simply doesn't have the soldiers to secure Iraq, let alone fulfill its commitments in Afghanistan. But some experts are calling the latest U.S. proposal to pull together an international force under the command of an American general "too little, too late," Iraq expert Toby Dodge told the BBC, "The danger now is that diluting the US presence might not do the trick. The resentment against the occupation is so great.""

Arafat calls for return to peace talks: "Ten years after the signing of historic peace accords whose goals were never achieved, Yasser Arafat said Saturday the Mideast conflict is facing its most difficult point since and he urged Israel to return to negotiations following its threat to exile him."

Angry Iraqis mourn deaths of officers: "Angry mourners swarmed this central Iraqi city Saturday, firing into the air, attacking journalists and cursing the American occupation as they followed the flag-draped coffins of eight Iraqi police killed in a friendly fire incident involving U.S. troops."

U.S. sees some Iraq contact with al-Qaida: "The Bush administration has evidence of some prewar Iraqi contacts and training with al-Qaida, based on prisoner interrogations, defector statements and documents collected in Iraq and Afghanistan, but no proof of joint terror operations, according to U.S. officials."

Powell: Gap On Iraq Narrowed: "But after conferring with fellow U.N. Security Council members in Geneva, Powell also said differences among them remain. He spurned a French proposal for Iraqis to take control in Iraq in a month. In a surprise, it was announced he would visit Iraq."

Fallujah Fumes Over Friendly Fire: "Angry mourners at a burial ceremony for victims of the incident peppered gunfire into the air and sneered at an American apology. One cleric urged the crowd to save its bullets for "the chests of the enemy." The U.S. says GIs were fired at first."

"We're coming with a mighty force to end the reign of your
oppressors," Bush said, addressing Iraqis who might be
listening from afar. "We are coming to bring you food and
medicine and a better life. And we are coming and we will
not stop, we will not relent until your country is free."
We are very proud of you,Keep your helmet on!

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